The Shepards of the Flock
by Wordsmith 17
Summary: Seven siblings, seperated at birth but reunited during N training. But with a rogue VI hunting them, how many will survive? FemShepxGarrus, FemShepxKaidan,MShepxTali, MShepxAshley.M because if I rate it T then two people will find something "unsuitable" and give me crap for my whole life. No sex or anything, just hedging my bets.
1. Chapter 1

_As promised, the compensation for CDC: Resurrection. Seven people, who...actually, no. I'm not going to tell you._

James Adam Elliot clambered gracefully out of the skycar as it pulled up outside the N training facility in Rio de Janeiro. The building looked huge from the outside. Built into the side of a mountain, it was easily seventy metres tall. Seventy-seven point oh-three, said the little voice in his head, the only portion of his massive intellect he ever allowed to surface. Even in his own mind. The physical stuff, the incredible speed and strength, he could do nothing about. It was his condition. He could never-would never feel emotion. Of any sort. Panic, sadness, anger, depression, all gone. Happiness, humour, joy, love, mercy, lust, attachment, all gone too. Aside from his general complete uniqueness, absolute incredibleness and the fact that no-one like him existed as far as he knew, he was quite normal. He was about six feet three inches tall, with red hair cut back so that it hung away from his eyes, which were a piercing, scouring acid green. His nose was the only part of his face that didn't immediately say, look at me. I am a genius and I can rip your head off with one hand. I know this. His nose was hooked and quite flat. It had been broken many times. As he walked up to the front of the building, a security guard moved up to him. "Sorry sir, but I need to see some ID. We had a failed bomb attack two weeks back, and extra security is in place. So, papers." James handed over his documents. The guard looked through them briefly. "Well, all seems in order. Pass granted." James thanked him, and walked past. As he walked into the main hall, he thought back. Who would have thought that the ganger from the slums would become an N marine?

John Daniel Shepard hauled himself through another pull-up, his sister, Erica, counting out. "Twenty! Twenty-one! Twenty-two!" He dropped off the bar, and smiled warmly. "New record. Your turn, Rics." The pair of them had joined the N5 program two weeks ago. Since then, a large group of new recruits had come in. John was six feet five, and Erica was six feet two. They shared the family eyes and hair, bright blue eyes and mousey brown hair. Erica wore her hair in a practical ponytail, and John had a buzzcut close to his scalp. They were both wearing medium armour, but with the weight-bearing servos turned off. This increased their weight to the point where even basic exercises were a great challenge. Erica strode over to the bar, clanking as she went. Twenty-two more pullups and two nutrient bars later, they were clanking over to the mess hall. Their armour stayed on. No servos, as before, because any training was good training. They grinned at each other, and took a spot in the queue.

Michael Nathan Jones hauled himself out of his sleeping bag, his shaggy brown hair mussed up and untidy. It was guerilla warfare training, and he, as well as the dozen or so other recruits in his group, had been dropped in the middle of the jungle to be hunted by a few platoons of mechs. One of his squadmates, his girlfriend Lizzy Ellison, was standing by the campfire. It was early in the morning, as he sidled up to her. "Hey." She gave him a shy smile.

"Hi."

"You okay? Why up so early?"

"Why are you?" She was avoiding the question. There was something wrong.

"Ok, I'll go back to bed." As he turned to go, though, the air filled with tracer rounds. They were only tranquilizer rounds, but if you were tagged, you were out. There were shouts of surprise from the other tents as his squadmates reacted. He ran for the weapons pile on the other side of the clearing. Digging through it, he found an SMG and a shotgun. He also grabbed an armour kit, for a medium armour, a few grenades, a biotic amp, and an omni-blade. Then, he turned to the camp. Spraying away at the attackers with his SMG, he examined the situation. Almost his whole group was down, just Lizzy and another guy called Oli letting off fire. Lizzy readied her omnitool, and one of the mechs turned to fire on its compatriots. Running forward, he jumped forward and grabbed the pair of them. Activating Vanguard charge, he shot forward and the trio vanished into the trees. He dropped them off at a nearby clearing, and ran towards the camp. There were heavy weapons there, including an M920-CAIN nuke launcher. As his barriers powered up, he considered his options. None of his plans went further than get the heavy weapons and nuke everything to shit. As he ran, though, a LOKI mech dropped almost on top of him. As he swung a biotic punch at it, an omni-blade swung out of its wrist. As it lunged at him with deadly intent, he flipped back. However, the blade slashed a long line along his face. It swung again, leaving a long gash on his chest. He jumped back as he could from the third swing, ignoring it as the blade came close to giving him a make-do sex change, and shot the thing in the head with his shotgun. Before he passed out, he saw Lizzy and Oli running towards him. Lizzy held up her omnitool and deployed first aid to him, before calling in a medevac. Then he passed out.

Jane, Ruby and Maria sat together at the table. The three of them were new recruits, and they had been more or less together since the start of N training. Which had been two weeks ago. They had been on the survival training, and DNA swabs, medical injections and suchlike had been happening ever since they had got back. Jane was tall and strong, with mousey brown hair and swirling purple eyes. She was six feet one, a powerful biotic for reasons unknown. She had never known her family, but instead she had memories of pain. Of a young girl, taken away and exposed to eezo close up. She needed no amp. She was just as good without one. Ruby had very strange hair, naturally red with honey-blonde streaks. Her eyes were blue-green, and she was about six feet tall. She was a Sentinel, specialising in Warp, Barrier and Sabotage. Next up was Maria, an engineer. She was the shortest in the group, only five feet nine, but no-one would ever take the piss, because if they did, she was liable to brutally murder them with her combat drone, Graham. She had brown hair, brown eyes, and light brown skin. They had been stunned in the attack on the camp, and had been taken back to the facility. When they saw Lizzy, Oli and Michael coming in, they expected banter and cheers and celebrations and big smiles. Instead, as they came in, the atmosphere was subdued. Michael was limping heavily, bandaged with gauze around his face and chest. Oli and Lizzy were supporting him. Noticing the whole mess hall staring at him, he grumbled. "The fuck y'all lookn a'? Nothin' y'never seen before?" Then he limped away. As he went, they heard him mutter under his breath, "fuckin' mechs." Then the trio left. The mess hall was silent for a few minutes. Then the group commander, John, and his second, Erica, yelled them off to training.

The VI had no name. It was a VI. It needed no name. It only knew that the old ones were coming, and that those it served now would fight them. Its first chosen one had failed to kill the Slayer. It activated the second warrior. It then sent three words to the thing as a command. Locate Paladin. Terminate.

 _Ta-daaa! If you like it, tell me. If not, please be gentle._


	2. Chapter 2

_Hello loyal readers (And all the rest of the world), this next chapter is finally up. Sorry. I know a lot of (read-7/8) people have been waiting, but I hope it was worth the wait._

Ruby hurried through the corridor. She was late for CQB combat training. The robot watched from the shadows. It had watched this one for a long time, and this would be the best chance to eliminate Paladin in weeks. Readying its omni-blade, it lunged forward.

Ruby felt a whistle of air at the back of her neck, and ducked on instinct, commando rolling to her feet. Facing her was a LOKI mech, similar to the one Michael had described attacking him. She rolled back, throwing up a biotic barrier. It would doubtless be her only protection. Hitting the thing with Sabotage, she ran forward to finish it off. However, it ducked, and quickly threw her away down the corridor. She landed badly, and felt something snap. It wasted no time, swinging its omniblade and delivering a slash to her face, and another one to her chest. She blocked the third swing with her omnitool, quickly using a code she had downloaded a few days ago to morph it into a large shield. The fourth swing deflected off that, and she pushed back. Activating another code, her omnitool switched into a powerful glove around her right arm. As the mech lunged one last time, she hit it round the face. It didn't so much go down as disintegrate. She deactivated the fist, and activated her first aid protocol. Then she passed out.

Doctor Alice Emerson, the N program's chief medical advisor, stood over the two people in the medical beds. Two rogue mechs in as many days was terrible. Two trainees had been badly hurt, almost killed. She looked at their DNA checks again, for some reason, and saw something strange. "Computer," she said, "run DNA comparisons on patient Jones, Michael Nathan, and patient Vanessa, Ruby Melissa." The computer replied calmly.

"DNA check underway." It paused for a second. "Familial relation detected."

The VI knew pain. It should not have felt such, as VIs were not human. Harbinger had shown it otherwise. The Old God's face burned it, right down to its core circuits. "You have found them," said Harbinger slowly, "now kill them." And the VI sent its best assassins to kill them. All of them.

John swiftly jogged through the narrow corridors, dressed in dark, tight-fitting clothes which had sensor jammers embedded in them. This meant that he was almost undetectable in the dark. This was infiltration, after all. It had been a week since DNA checks had suddenly revealed a shocking truth. John, Erica, Michael, Jane, James, Ruby and Maria were siblings. It was unknown who the father was, but the mother was clearly Hannah Shepard. However, he could not talk about it now. That would get him caught by the large group of LOKI mechs that had been deployed to simulate armed guards. A text alert blipped on his omnitool, from Michael. He silently cursed his friend's (brother's, he corrected himself,) incompetence, and continued. Another blip. He ignored the message again. A third blip. Angrily, he punched it up. The message read: come quick. Bad Mech. Then, a fourth blip. Erica hurt. Quick! He quickly sent back an acknowledgment, and started running. He was almost at the coordinates of the rest of his team when a dark shape slammed into him, knocking him off his feet. He punched it in the face, and heard a crunch of splintered bone. Jim Reese, from N2, spun away. "What the hell?" He yelled, "why did you do that?"

"The others! Another rogue mech, attacking them!" Jim grinned, even with his broken nose.

"A likely story. I'm afraid I'm going to have to bring you back, now, and see what to... " and the tip of a spear erupted from his chest. John jumped backwards, but there was nothing there. Except the 2-metre spear sticking out of a poor kid who had picked the wrong day to be 'it'. John stepped over the corpse. There was nothing that could be done for him. The others might still be alive. He ran on.

The mech was a lot faster than the other two had been, and that was saying a lot. Erica had been stabbed in the arm. There was a lot of blood. They had no armour, so the blade had gone right through. And this mech had backup. Dozens of little combat drones, zipping around and making the fight an absolute nightmare. Between those, the mech, and a few advanced assault drones, the five Shepards still standing were fighting a losing battle. Maria was dragging Erica away, with Graham still active and blasting. Michael was giving hell, but with the sheer amount of firepower around, he couldn't risk charging. The others were starting to run out of thermal clips. James was the most effective. His twin Striker pistols were making minced metal out of a few LOKI mechs coming out of a side tunnel. Jane's biotics were being stretched to the limit keeping them all alive, leaving no power left for offense. Ruby had used her powers to great effect, but when they were recharging, she was vulnerable. John's arrival turned the situation around. He arrived behind the enemy, and immediately started blasting. The combat drones, until now so hard to hit, were caught out by the sudden assault rifle barrage. At least half went down in the first few seconds. The mech turned to him, and opened fire with a Hornet 4 SMG. He rolled away as rounds streaked past where he had been standing less than two seconds ago. James finished off his attacker, and spun fast. He squeezed off a few shots, each one hitting the mech squarely in the chest, before spinning perfectly back on the ball of his left foot, omniblade neatly extending to decapitate another LOKI mech. Maria had finished tending to Erica, and was now focused completely on reducing the enemy to small particles. Her custom Stiletto was good, but the best thing was the relentless barrage of tech attacks she was letting off. Her Sabotages, Hacks and Overloads were causing heavy casualties. However, the mechs just kept on coming. They were going to be overpowered. The main mech lunged forward, and cut James across the face with a downwards diagonal slash. It didn't take his eye out, but it immediately swung again, slicing him across the chest. John lunged, but the same thing happened to him. They both went down, leaving the girls still standing. Jane let fly with her whole arsenal of powers. Each one flew with deadly accuracy, sending mechs into walls. Her singularity caught out a few more enemies, leaving them helpless. Ruby then fired off her powers, bringing down several more. Maria fired off a Sabotage, but then a mech slammed into her. She pushed it off, but it got two lucky swings in, one on the face, and one on the chest. Then, suddenly, there was a volley of shots. A squad of Alliance Marines charged down the corridor, firing as they went. The mech jumped away, and escaped down the corridor. The Marines turned to the stricken Shepards, and deployed medi-gel. Then, something came down the corridor. It was tall, glowing blue, with no hair. It shambled along, a zombie with cybernetics. One Marine noticed, and opened fire, but it ran into him and tore his throat out with its bare hands. The others turned to open fire, switching to shotguns. It ran up to them, and a blue field extended from it, knocking them back and taking out their shields. It fell upon the nearest Marine, and snapped her neck. Then, it ran at Erica. She had passed out from blood loss. Suddenly, James grabbed the pistol of one of the Marines who had died. Turning, and getting a good bead, he shot it twice in the head, thrice in the torso, and once in each leg. It went down. The last Marine radioed in to base, asking for a full platoon to be sent into the tunnels in order to hunt the mech down, and asking for a med-evac. Ten minutes later, they were all back in the medbay, on IV drips of saline fluids. Erica had been taken to intensive care. John had told the medical staff that he was fine. They had shown him his x-ray. He had gone back to bed.

The VI stood, metaphorically speaking, before its master. It gave its report. "They are marked. Not dead, but now..." a burst of electronic agony raced through its core circuits.

"Fool." The voice held no inflection, no emotion. It did not need to. "Were there any other option, you would have been destroyed by now. However, I now see that your incompetence must be offset with increased materiel. Within two days, Paladin will be out of hospital. The others will soon follow. They will insist on completing the final test of their N training. There is only that outcome available. There, they will be engaged in large-scale, close quarters combat against a force of mechs on the Alliance's Lunar training facility. The base AI will malfunction. You will be uploaded so as not to delay the training. One hour into the start of training, all communication will be lost. An equipment malfunction will be blamed. You will then have two hours to destroy them. After that, there will be no other opportunities to destroy them. If you fail, you will know pain."

 _I will not explain the plot. However, this is the penultimate chapter of the pre-ME story arc. For those of you who enjoyed it, good. For those of you who did not, well, please tell me why._


	3. Chapter 3

_Hello all! I have almost finished this; don't worry; only this chapter to go until the Shepard siblings take on the Geth for the first , this thing with being 'marked' will resolve itself. No, do not rush off to check wikis. I made it up. Also, please review. I feel unloved and alone._

It was two weeks since the attack by the rogue mech, and the strange cybernetic zombie now codenamed a 'husk' The Kodiak shuttle swooped down out of the sky, dropping off the Seven Shepard siblings on Luna. They had each been issued with two hours free reign inside the N7 armoury, walking away with sets of Onyx armour, Naginata sniper rifles, Tsunami assault rifles, as well as grenades galore. John was proudly toting an M-560 Hydra, as was Erica, while James held a Harpoon sniper rifle. Michael proudly toted one of the new Claymore 7 shotguns. The door opened. They entered. A camera watched. They were escorted to the start point. On the other side of the facility, a vast underground maze crawling with drones and mechs of all descriptions, was the objective. They moved out, covering corridors and ante-chambers as they moved forward. For the first hour, it was easy, the mechs offering little resistance despite the team getting almost halfway to the objective. Then, they approached a corridor. John brought up his area map, and saw that this door was the only way to or from the area with the objective. "Okay, guys, we need to guard the door. Erica, Michael, bunker down here and hold it against all comers. We caught little sight of the enemy en route here, and I do not want to get hit in the ass by a platoon of mechs." Erica nodded, and took up position. Michael followed on. The others kept moving. Hidden eyes watched from the shadows. Around the entrance to the corridor, they began to gather. Erica saw them. She opened her omnitool to send a message, but it was jammed. "They're jamming us. Go tell the others to get ready and send someone back here to help." Michael headed off, Vanguard charging away down the passage. Erica readied her Tsunami 5. More mechs came. She peered down the sights. Two YMIR mechs arrived. _Come on guys,_ she thought, _where are you?_ Suddenly, the mechs surged forward, and she was fighting for her life.

Jane, Ruby and Michael hurried through the tunnel. Erica's signal read as ten metres away, nine, eight…a volley of fire blasted into the wall behind them. Michael spotted the shooter, a LOKI mech with an assault rifle instead of the usual pistol and SMG. He leapt forward, activating vanguard charge mid-air and sending himself cannoning into the mech, which hit the wall. He drew his pistol, and shot it until his pistol overheated. Another two mechs came round the corner, but were met with fire from Jane and Ruby. The trio kept moving, and saw Erica on the ground. There was a large pool of blood around her midriff. Michael deployed medi-gel, before charging forward to unleash a point-blank Throw into the chest of a mech that was sneaking up on them. They picked up Erica, who had passed out, and started moving. The mechs had moved on.

They met up with John, James and Maria outside the door into the objective. A dozen mangled LOKI mechs lay around. John picked up Erica, pressing a few buttons on her hardsuit to activate the medical interface. She slowly woke up. Meanwhile, as the stimulants worked their magic, Maria began looking over her armour and wounds. It did not look good. A heavy round had ripped through her side, taking a good chunk of flesh with it. About a tennis ball sized chunk of flesh was missing. Aside from this, there were a good twenty bullet holes around the torso. John opened his omnitool to call for evac. This was too familiar. Mechs suddenly starting to use live ammo, where tranquiliser rounds had been loaded. Ambushes in training scenarios. His message came up with an alert saying it had failed in transit. And now, communications were blocked. It was like… _holy shit._ _They were being hunted._

"What?" James asked, "Why are we specifically being hunted?" John did not know.

"I don't know, but it might be something to do with this VI. The VI here malfunctioned, remember? And they replaced it with the VI that was running the…"

"…Infiltration training," finished James, realization dawning on his face. "So we've had a VI gunning for us, but why?"

"I don't know, but we have to take it out. If we blow up the server banks, it should shut down the whole complex." James nodded.

"What about Erica?"

"I'm fine," said Erica, "I'm swimming in antibiotics and medi-gel, enough to make it through a firefight against some mechs." James looked to John. John looked to Erica. Erica looked to James. John sighed.

"Fine. But you stay back. Sniping only, no heroics." She gave him a pained smile.

"Of course. This is me we're talking about here."

The VI core was heavily guarded. Three YMIR mechs, around two platoons' strength of LOKI mechs, and several squadrons of assault and rocket drones. John kicked off the attack with a well-aimed rocket that took out a YMIR mech, causing it to self-destruct and destroy a few nearby LOKI mechs. James and Erica readied their sniper rifles, and shot a pair of LOKI mechs with sniper rifles. The sniper mechs in question went down, and the others charged in. Ruby and Maria fought in unison, their powers setting up tech explosions. Jane was at the centre of a whirlwind of biotic energy. She held out her hands, and a pair of singularities materialised in the middle of some LOKI mechs. They flew around, helpless, and she sprayed them with her SMG. The Singularities disengaged, and they collapsed. Michael was taking on a YMIR mech, fists glowing as he brutally pounded it. It fell, and he jumped back. He landed neatly, and shot it. Then he charged through the explosion to destroy a LOKI mech sneaking up on John. John was spraying everything point-blank with his assault rifle, felling dozens of mechs. The five of them kept blazing away, James and Erica dropping enemies with pinpoint accuracy. And then, suddenly, it was over. The last YMIR mech fell to overloads from Maria and Ruby, combined with a handy Warp from Jane. They stepped forward to the VI server bank. Then, suddenly, a voice boomed through the room. "You are skilled. Too skilled, perhaps, in the use of your clumsy weapons. You are blind to the truth."

"Who are you?" Yelled John.

"I am the Vanguard of your Salvation, Destroyer. I am the Herald of your Enlightenment." Michael stepped forward.

"Yeah, whatever." They started planting charges, ignoring deep, sonorous warnings from the voice. The voice boomed.

"Go on, then. Finish your work. This is your task. But one of you must stay behind to detonate it." Jane pulled out the remote detonator.

"Why so sure, dipshit?" The detonator sparked.

"I am fully sure, Fury. And you must decide soon which one it is to be." The sound of mechs walking along a corridor reached them. "Or you will all die. Choose, now." They looked to each other. None of them would leave one of the others behind. Then a sniper round came along the corridor. It struck Erica in the leg. She collapsed, a chunk taken out of her right thigh. Another round came in, and struck her in the ribs.

"Go," she grunted, teeth gritted against the pain, "I'm gonna blow this son of a bitch sky high." She drew her pistol.

"No!" yelled John, "You can't. You can't leave me."

"I'm sorry John. This is…" she coughed, punctured lungs spattering the floor with blood. "This is the only way. The mechs will shut down, and you can escape." John nodded, tears running down his face, and started running. They were still running as Erica fired one shot into the explosives. The mechs shut down as the VI was destroyed. John collapsed. Erica was dead. Jane came up to him. "She couldn't have made it with that leg wound, John. She just couldn't have. She couldn't get away, so she sacrificed herself for us." John nodded, tears staining his face. Then, his grey eyes seemed to freeze over. He turned to Jane. His voice was wavering slightly, thick with emotion, but it held force.

"I am going to find out who was behind this. And when I do, I will make them pay. I promise you that."

Graduation day at N7 training was a joyous occasion. Not so the ceremony of the Shepard sextuplets. The shadow of Erica's death hung over the occasion, casting a shroud over the joy of fifty-seven proud parents. The Shepards came up to the podium, reaffirmed their oath to protect mankind and its allies, and accepted their medallions. John was the last one to walk off the podium. The others were waiting. Jane spoke up. "John, there's something we want to tell you."

"We were packing, and we found this," continued Michael, holding out a locket on a thin, silver chain. James took it, and handed it to him.

"It has a photo of us in. All of us, like it should be," he said.

"We just hope it'll help you remember her," said Ruby.

"It was Erica's," said Maria. John took the locket, and smiled sadly.

"Thank you." Then, they started walking off to pack. They were bruised, bloodied, and diminished. But they were N7 marines now, and there was no place for grief.

The military section of the spaceport at Arcturus was filled with people bustling around, going about their daily business. "N7 commando unit 11 to the SSV Normandy. Repeat, N7 commando unit 11 to SSV Normandy." The Shepards stood up, each dragging two heavy cases with personal effects. Their weapons and armour had been sent ahead. The Normandy looked like an incredible ship. Long and sleek, it looked perfectly capable of holding its own in a fight. A man in Titan light armour waved them aboard. "Welcome to the Normandy. Captain Anderson will be down shortly."

"Who are you?" Asked Jane.

"Kaidan Alenko. Staff Commander Kaidan Alenko." Then the captain, a man called Anderson, came down.

"Welcome aboard."

 _And that concludes the pre-ME story arc. Review, follow, and favourite if you liked it! More soon, already working on it."_


	4. Chapter 4

_I'm back! Sorry for the long wait, but I had a holiday. Sorry._

Alliance Dossier; Mission Designation: Operation Vengeful Hammerblow

Commander Jonathan Daniel Shepard

Soldier. Raised on Arcturus, to Eric and Hannah Shepard. Extremely moral. Often considered a 'goody two-shoes' by his siblings, his moral compass has nonetheless served him well on many missions. Titles: Lion of Elysium.

Lieutenant James Adam Shepard

Infiltrator. Raised on Earth in a gang known as the Reds. Cool, calm, collected, often referred to as the android. Avoids direct social contact or familiarity. Incapable of experiencing emotion thanks to a genetic defect, which also makes him incredibly intelligent and physically able. Well known for winning a bar fight against a Krogan. The Krogan had attacked and beaten up an Asari dancer. He was about to stamp down on the Asari's head when James grabbed his leg and upended him. Titles: Hero of Akuze.

Sergeant Michael Nathan Shepard

Vanguard. Raised on Mindoir, which was then brutally attacked by Batarian slavers. This traumatic event, combined with the fact that he was installed with an L2 biotic amp, has led to ruthless and occasionally bloodthirsty tendencies. Mildly xenophobic. Titles: Butcher of Torfan.

Second Lieutenant Jane Alice Shepard

Adept. Origin more or less unknown. Exposed through brutal experiments at birth to large concentrations of Element Zero. One of the few natural human biotics. Intensely focused. Her morality has led to several arguments over the years, and as such she is banned from Omega, Chora's den, and the fresh produce aisle of the Tesco on Noveria. (Reason unknown.) Titles: Scourge of Omega.

Corporal Ruby Melissa Shepard

Sentinel. Born on Earth, Manhattan. Strong-willed, skillful, perfect Commander material, but refused promotion because 'someone has to keep the grunts in line.' Strongly loyal to her siblings and those marines under her command. Very creative attitude towards Alliance regs. Titles: none.

Staff sergeant Maria Alyssa Shepard

Engineer. Born on Omega. Learned Karate, Judo, Tai Chi, Kung Fu, and Jujitsu at a young age. Owns a green combat drone called Graham. Strong, both physically and mentally, with a firm sense of justice but mischievous tendencies. E.g. once [classified] a [classified] with a [classified] on April fool's day. Titles: none.

Note: all the Shepards are trained N7 commandos. They were separated at birth, and were only reunited when DNA scans during the Luna outpost incident during N training revealed that they were siblings.

Anderson put down the Dossier, and looked up at Hackett. "So, what do you think? They're the closest unit we can get to Eden Prime. They're stationed on the SSV Normandy with Nihilus, a council SpecTRe who is evaluating each of them for SpecTRe status." Hackett frowned. "They appear to be a mismatched group. Some have tragic backgrounds, some have no morals, James Shepard has a medical condition that stops him feeling emotion. They were only reunited at the start of N training. Tensions still exist between them that could undermine their effectiveness. Are they really the sort of people we want protecting the galaxy?"

"They're the only people who _can_ protect the galaxy."

"Send them in."

The SSV Normandy swooped through space as it left the Mass Effect relay. At the helm, Joker, the disabled pilot, checked his instruments. "Drift holding steady at two thousand. Jump successful." Behind him, Nihilus spoke abruptly.

"Two thousand is good. Your captain will be pleased." Then he left. Joker spoke to Kaidan.

"I hate that guy."

"Nihilus just paid you a compliment. So you hate him?"

"SpecTRes are trouble. Call me paranoid."

"You're paranoid." John said as he came onto the bridge. "This is a council ship as well as an Alliance one, and the council has a right to send someone to keep an eye on their investment."

"Maybe, but I know the council doesn't send SpecTRes on shakedown runs."

"You think there's something else to this mission?"

"Definitely. I can feel it in my gut. That, and I just hacked Nihilus' suit's audio recorder. I never knew that Eden Prime had found a Prothean beacon. Did you?" Just as John was about to ask how-and why-Joker had hacked Nihilus' suit, Maria ran onto the bridge.

"The Captain wants to see us."

The six Shepard siblings stood in front of Captain Anderson and Nihilus. Nihilus was speaking. "Eden Prime. Your most beautiful colony. Two days ago, it unearthed an article of Prothean tech. Three minutes ago, we received this transmission." The screen on the wall flickered into life. The picture was shaky, and indistinct, but they could see a large group of humanoid beings opening fire on the Alliance marines. A heavy cannon, possibly from a Mako, fired, making the feed white out. When it came back, the camera was shaking as the bearer ran. He was talking to himself. "Holy God. Holy God. Holy..." a shape came out of nowhere, and smashed into the camera. There was the sound of an omni-blade, and a film of blood coated the lens. It was held up again, and pointed towards the corpse of the soldier. It was then pointed towards the hill. There was an army there. At least twelve platoons of infantry, supported by two huge, hulking things that stomped along on four legs. James spoke in the background. "Those appear to be Geth. Recommend immediate landing."

The Normandy swooped down, and landed. Nihilus was in the cargo bay, checking his shotgun. Michael spoke. "You coming with us? Or are y' jus' posin' fer th' camera?"

"I move faster on my own." And then, quick as a flash, he was gone. John spoke to the others.

"Ok, here's the plan. I will lead a team of me, Kaidan, and Jenkins to check for survivors who can give us more info. James, head for the station. If they want to move the beacon offworld, that's where it'll be. Stop them doing that. Maria, Jane, Ruby, go find Nihilus. The council doesn't like us if we let their dogs wander off. Michael?"

"'Sup?"

"Smash the flashlight heads. All the flashlight heads."

"Nice."

"Right! Move out!"

James snuck past the two Geth at the station. He could have killed them in two seconds flat, but the reinforcements would be more of a problem. There was a Geth Destroyer on the rooftop. This was just too good a chance to miss. He pulled out his heavily customized Punisher 7 sniper rifle, and put two shots in its back. He then moved, quickly, on to the platform. His twin Striker 4 pistols made short work of two Geth, and he moved forward. Had his condition not prevented him from feeling emotion, he would have gasped. There, on the ground, lay Nihilus. He had been shot. A quick inspection revealed that it had been a pistol shot. Close range, delivered to the base of the skull, carefully lined up. The weapon that had fired it had probably been a large pistol, customized. Not the Geth then. They never customized their gear. An ally of the Geth. The pistol was made by a human, probably a Stiletto. It had used radioactive rounds, as proven by the slight discoloration of the flesh around the impact zone, suggesting that the firer was someone who didn't want their target to survive even if they survived the first hit. That suggested a trained killer. Some newbies just went for a high-damage ammo upgrade, not paying attention to damage over time or damping. It had not been delivered during combat, it was too precise for that. Nihilus had let his guard down. There were no corpses nearby, which ruled out that he was captured, interrogated, and then executed. All evidence pointed to a betrayal. Nihilus wasn't one to trust easily, so it had been a close friend, or at least someone he trusted. Close friend, well trained, heavily customized weapon, maybe another SpecTRe. He raised his omni-tool. There were three messages on it. Two were from John. The first one read: Jenkins down. Have engaged enemy. The second read: found survivor. Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, 212 marines. OMG so hot. The third was from Jane: No sign of Nihilus. Found batshit crazy doctor+Husks en masse. He sent a message to everyone. Nihilus dead, betrayed. Backup at station ASAP, no sign of beacon. He closed his tool, and, without turning, put a perfect pistol shot into a Geth Infiltrator that was sneaking up on him.

John ran up, Kaidan and a woman that James assumed to be the legendary Ashley Williams beside him. "You said Nihilus was...holy shit." James nodded.

"Holy shit indeed. One pistol shot, not an execution, betrayal. Possibly another SpecTRe." Michael appeared, having used Vanguard charge to get to the station fast. "Yup, all th' flashies are deader 'n dodos. Hey, is that Nihilus?"

Once Jane, Ruby and Maria arrived, they started moving forward up to the station. A few squads of Geth barred their way, but that ended with predictable results. At one point they did get pinned down trying to get on the train by a Geth sniper, but Michael solved the problem by charging the sniper and shooting it point blank with a cry of 'screw this.' They got to the platform, to see a Geth engineer setting a charge. They shot it dead, and disarmed the charge. They then split into groups to find and disarm the other charges. James went for the one on the roof of a large building, as he was the only one who could get up there quickly. Two shots later, he had killed the Geth up there and disabled the charge. He yelled out, "Charge disabled!" And quickly climbed back down. The Beacon was on the platform. Kaidan moved up to investigate. Suddenly, an invisible force grabbed him and lifted him up in the air. John turned, and ran forward to help, but it was too late. He would never reach him in time. Maria was closer, and sprinted forward, grabbing Kaidan around the waist and hurling him away. The Beacon exploded, and Maria was thrown back. She hit her head on the concrete, and passed out.

 _And done. Please review, and be the first one to tell me what you thought so far!_


	5. Chapter 5

_I felt bad for leaving you on a cliffhanger._

Maria saw things. _Things_ was all she could describe them as. They were massive, if this vision was to scale, at least as large as a Dreadnought. At first she was in the cold mind of a body that was not hers. Its thoughts were simple, on the surface. Kill the Prothean race. Wait, the Protheans? She knew that name. Their technology was the base for all technology in the galaxy. No. They were the target. The cycle had to continue. A few reams of a code that she did not recognise followed. Underneath this thing's simple thoughts, though, there was a plethora of tactical data, sensory feedback, communications, weapon data and targeting readouts. Just as she was about to be swept under the surface of this vast sea of information, which would surely drown her very being in the sheer amount of data, far too much for her puny human mind, she was swept up by a tidal wave of emotion, living, feeling creatures' last moments. She heard screams, of anger and fear and sadness. She caught snatches of conversations, and yells. Quick, quick, into the cryo-pods. This is the end. Load the chambers. Activate the self-destruct. We must continue. We must...she snapped awake. There was a voice. Not one of her sisters. The new marine, Ashley. "...tor Chakwas! I think she's waking up!" The grey-haired Doctor came in.

"You had us worried, Sergeant. How are you feeling?"

"Like the day after N7 training. Sick, but stronger than before."

"Interesting. Is there any chance you could tell us what happened?"

"I think I saw the end of the Protheans." Ashley and Chakwas looked at each other. Ashley raised an eyebrow. Chakwas gave her a look that said 'don't knock it.'

"Go on," she said.

"There were these...things. They were wiping out the Protheans, systematically. Efficiently. Callously." Chakwas seemed shocked.

"Are you sure? You could have been mistaken."

"I am sure. And there's one other thing."

"What?"

Maria gave a grimace. "These beings. They're coming for us." You could have cut the atmosphere with a knife and spread it on toast. Anderson walked in, breaking the silence.

"How's the Sergeant holding up, Doctor?" Chakwas spoke, stepping forward.

"Physically, she's fine. However, I did notice several spikes of abnormally strong brain activity, as well as abnormal beta waves."

"Interesting. Could I talk to Sergeant Shepard alone for a bit, doctor?" Chakwas and Ashley walked out.

"What can you tell me?"

"We have an eyewitness account of Saren killing Nihilus. If we tell the council, he will be stripped of his SpecTRe status, and we can him down. I say that's what we do."

"We need to get this information back to the Citadel. They cannot ignore this sort of evidence, even against their golden boy. We have an eyewitness, a dead SpecTRe, and a human colony that this bastard turned into a mass grave."

Kaidan was standing around outside the mess hall when Jane ran into him. "Hi," she said, "you're kind of quiet. Is something wrong?"

"Nothing, just…I feel kinda guilty about what happened to Maria. If I hadn't gone too close, to check that beacon, we might not be in the situation that we're in now."

"No. Don't beat yourself up about that. You got too close. Big deal. It could have been any of us, and if it hadn't been one of us, it would have been someone else. All you did was speed up the process." He gave her a sort of shy smile.

"Thanks. I guess you're right." She gave him a grin.

"Of course. I'm never wrong, remember?" She said jokingly. He grinned back.

"Thanks. I really appreciate you understanding all this. I t really helped. It is actually really nice talking to someone about something out of combat. I don't suppose you're free on Thursday?"

"Depends what you have in mind." A sudden realisation crossed his face as he realised what he had just said.

"Oh, sorry, not like that, I just…" she could practically see the cogs turning. "…I just have some weapon mods that need sorting, and I heard you know your Heat Sink from your Combat Scanner." She smiled.

"Sure. That sounds fun." Then they both parted. Jane was starting to realise that Kaidan thought of her as a bit more than a professional friend. And she was starting, slowly, unwillingly, to realise that the feeling was mutual. She kept walking for a few minutes, and stopped. She had a crush. That crush liked her. This was so damn confusing. She walked some more until she got to her quarters. Then she buried her face in a towel, and yelled. "OHMYFREAKINGGODIHAVENOIDEAWHATTHEHELLJUSTHAPPENED!"

"A traitor? Saren?" Barked the Turian Councillor. "You humans are even stupider than you look."

"I concur. Nihilus was a dear friend. Why on Palaven would I kill him?" Boomed the large hologram of Saren on the wall. James was completely calm, despite the jests. He had been chosen by Anderson to attend the Council meeting. "As Nihilus was a friend," he said calmly, "would you say he was a good fighter?"

"Good!?" Spluttered Saren, or as close as he could come to it, being a Turian and all. "He was the best! None could beat him! He was determined, none could make him give in did he not want to."

"So, you would say he could not be overpowered?"

"Yes. Definitely. He would have to be shot a thousand times before he died."

"On Eden Prime, he was killed by one bullet. Back of the head. An execution shot. Or a betrayal." He let the implication sink in. He had them now. They could not ignore this. Then Saren played his trump card.

"We all know what this is, Anderson. Another attempt to bring me down and let me take the blame for _your_ mistake." And with those two sentences, he had brought down their whole case. James could have just strangled him right then. The Turian Councillor then spoke to James, Udina, and Anderson.

"We do not believe you. Until such time as you find more evidence, this trial may be considered on ice." On the wall, Saren spoke.

"Finding evidence. Huh. Good luck with that."

 _Been making a massive backlog of content while I was away on holiday. Should be churning out two chapters a week now for a bit, to make it up to you guys for the long wait._


	6. Chapter 6

_And the new chapter is here! I am on FIRE!_

 _James_

As they walked out, they saw two Turians shouting at each other, and a group had gathered to stare. One, a battle-scarred Turian with blue-grey skin and a holographic targeting lens over one eye, was yelling at the other, a smooth-skinned (plated?) brown-plated Turian who had the proud and haughty look of a politician, or an aspiring one at the least. Maria, Kaidan and Michael walked up to James. "So," asked Maria, "How did it go?" James wasn't listening very hard. His attention was focused on the pair of Turians. Shutting off all other noises, he listened in. It was a trick he had figured out when he was seventeen. All he had to do was quickly mentally file all the nearby voices, and only allow those from his targets to reach him. It was very helpful. He was just catching the end of the conversation. The scarred one was sounding like he was thinking about using the Haliat four assault rifle on his back. "...eed more time. You get me more time, or I will rip out your intestines, mash them up, and serve them to a horde of wild varren on a dish made out of your plating." James made a quick mental note of that threat, because it would probably be quite handy in future. The other one's voice was haughty and clipped.

"Do you honestly have nothing better to do than trying to hunt Saren? This is a fruitless case. No-one is still working on it anymore, and even the tenacious Alliance have given up." James decided to make his entrance then.

"Right on one count, but wrong on two." The brown Turian looked over at him.

"Ah, Lieutenant Shepard. I hope you will be able to make Vakarian see reason. So far, my efforts have been, how to say it...less than anticipated. But perhaps, you could handle this matter?" His voice was wheedling, tempting, that of a politician. James was perfectly calm, of course. He walked up to the Turian he presumed to be Vakarian.

"So, what leads? Anything useful?" Garrus shook his head.

"Not here. Meet me in the Wards, at the med clinic. I don't have much, but if you guys are working to take down Saren, then all my research is yours." Maria nodded. She was always more the strong, silent type, but right now she seemed shy, more than anything else.

"Thank you," she said, "we'll head over there." Garrus gave a wry, Turian smile.

"Bye." Then he was gone. Maria turned to James.

"Dating a Turian. Advice. Now."

"Romantic or sexual?" She chuckled. Her brother had never been normal. The doctors said it was an advanced form of Autism, but whatever it was, he could not feel emotion or embarrassment. His photographic memory came in handy, though, in situations like this.

"Both," she said, "but don't tell me here. Maybe after we find out what the hell is going on."

 _Dr Michelle_

Doctor Chloe Michelle was not having a good day. But armed thugs holding a shotgun and saying they'd stick it up your ass and pull the trigger being sent to your clinic would ruin anyone's day. One of the thugs was currently holding a gun to her head, and interrogating her. He hit her across the face. She saw Garrus, hidden in the corner, flinch. "Who did you tell?"

"Please, I swear, I told no-one! Please, you must believe me!"

"I believe you. Consider this insurance." She closed her eyes. There was a gunshot. Suddenly, the pressure on her temple was gone as the gun barrel fell away. There were yells, and gunshots. She opened an eye. An N7 marine was standing over her, Garrus behind him. "Are you hurt?" He asked. She shook her head hurriedly. "Good. Lieutenant James Shepard is my name. Who were those guys?"

"They work for Fist. I should probably tell you from the beginning. I was working late, when a Quarian came in. She had been shot, but she wouldn't tell us who by. I was about to call c-sec when those men burst in. They started asking questions about the Quarian, where she was, but she ran for it. I think she escaped. They started grilling me then." James looked at the others. They still had nothing to go on. Then one of the thugs groaned. James was over to him in a second. A quick inspection revealed the extent of his injuries.

"Ok, your back is broken. Are you in much pain?" The thug shook his head vigorously. James produced a small syringe from a compartment in his armour. "That's a shame. This stuff is so hard to come by." He then shoved the needle into the thug's neck.

"What is that?" The man asked, his eyes wild.

"Blowfish poison," replied James calmly, "shooting pains will soon start travelling through your whole body, culminating in your somewhat messy demise. I have the antidote. The price is what Fist wants with the Quarian." The man nodded, frantically.

"The Quarian came to Fist. Said she was only going to talk to the Shadow Broker, but that she had info on some Turian called Saren. That's all I know. Please, now, the antidote!" James produced the antidote. He was moving it towards the thug's arm when the thug died in tune with a sniper shot. The others moved fast, their weapons coming up to cover the angles. "Over there!" Shouted Garrus, pointing to a rooftop, and John and Ashley started spraying the area with assault rifle fire from their Torrent 5s. The heat sinks popped, and they ceased firing. Then, another sniper round came in from another rooftop. James tuned into his helmet display, combining the targeting display with his own incredible intellect to create a perfect grid of possible locations for the sniper. Quickly, he threw an incendiary grenade at each one. As they were in flight, he detonated them, sending the burning paste over a large area. There was a scream from one area, and the whole group opened fire on it. The whole sector was vaporized. Several wisps of smoke rose from the area where the sniper had been. They all looked towards the corpse of the thug. That man had been killed for telling them that the Quarian had info on Saren. Dr Michelle could see a steel in their eyes. The Quarian had something they wanted. They knew that whatever the cost, that Quarian had to survive. They knew they had to save her. And that meant hitting Fist's club. She only hoped they survived.

 _Bam. Done. As you may have seen, I'm now adding the character whose POV it is at the start of each line break._


	7. Chapter 7

_I'm back!_

James

The six Shepard siblings, in addition to Ashley, Kaidan and Garrus, sat round a table and discussed plans. "We need to go in," said Michael, "hit the bastards hard, and kill them. Then go find the Quarian."

"No," said James, "if that happens, they'll just send someone after her before we can take her somewhere safe. We need to find out more. And that means kidnapping one of Fist's men. And for that, we need bait to lure the guy out."

They selected a target soon enough. A total sleaze called Harkin. Kicked out of c-sec for drinking on duty. One of Garrus' old buddies actually, until he had used what administrative clout he had to tie down the Saren case with red tape. The first step was infiltrating the club with someone who could approach him with impunity, and convince him to come somewhere private. As Chora's den was, for lack of a better term, or need for one, a strip club, this meant one of the female team members. In the end, they just drew straws. In Maria's words, she would have rather played Russian roulette with an M920 CAIN. Eventually, Ruby was chosen.

Ruby

Harkin sat forward as the human dancer, Ruby, started gyrating on her knees. It was one hell of a sight, so he slipped a twenty-credit transfer to her omnitool and kept watching. Afterwards, she walked up to him. "So, honey," she said in a husky voice, "I think you and I need a little privacy." And she took him by the hand, and lead him outside. In a booth at the other side of the club, Kaidan shook off the attentions of a Drell female and moved after them. "Sleazebag is out of area Moshpit," he whispered into a commlink, "Honeypot phase is good."

"Where are we going?" Grumbled Harkin, "None of the other dancers mind about privacy."

"Good thing I'm not a dancer," said Ruby suddenly, turning and pointing a Brawler 4 pistol at him, "now surrender and tell us everything you know about the Quarian."

"I swear; I don't know anything!" Yelled Harkin, "I don't even work for Fist!"

"We know you do. We know you have no family. No one who will miss you. We know you once inhabited a small apartment behind Armax Arsenal. We know everything about you."

"If you know that much, you must know that I can snap my fingers and have you killed."

"No you can't."

"Yes I can." There came the sound of two gunshots from the rooftop, followed by a shout from James saying the Sniper was down.

"No, you can't," said Ruby smugly.

"Ok, I'll tell you. The Quarian came in one day, demanding an audience with the Shadow Broker. Fist took her away. There was a Krogan that came in after her, demanding to see her. He made a lot of threats. Said the Quarian was his charge. The bouncers turned him away, but he swore he'd be back. Ever since then, Fist's been getting every bounty hunter, assassin and hired gun on the Citadel to help guard him. I don't know what he did with the Quarian. Please, let me go!" In response, Ruby took a syringe and injected it into him.

"What's that?" He asked, scared.

"Amnesiac. You will remember nothing." He gulped.

"Okay." And then he passed out.

They were back at the table. John was speaking. "So, we know that Fist has the Quarian. We also know that there is a large, angry Krogan out to rescue her." Garrus spoke up.

"Krogan, large, wants to protect a Quarian? He was arrested two days ago. He was accused of making threats. Fist has bribed his way into almost the whole system, so the charge went through. He's in a cell right now, but I may be able to get him out. A Krogan would be quite helpful if we have to hit Fist's den." Maria spoke up.

"You're suggesting we break someone out of one of your own prisons?"

"I'm just...stating the possibilities." Michael grinned.

"I like where this is heading."

It was corporal Danius Saloeran's third week on the job. He was Turian, tall, born on Palaven. He saw a man in a hood walking along the alleyway, and raised his Lancer 1. As he and his colleague, a Salarian who he didn't know, approached, they saw a slight movement beneath the hood as a pair of sharp eyes flicked to them. There was then a blur of sorts, and he felt a heavy blow on the back of his head. The last thing he thought as he passed out was that he should've called in sick leave today.

Maria and Garrus hurried forward, their tech skills quickly knocking out the few guards in their way. The plan was simple. Jane, Ruby, James, Kaidan, Michael, John and Ashley would create diversions around the site, while Garrus and her went after the Krogan. As they went, they started talking. "So, when did you start working on tech attacks?" Asked Garrus.

"My dad got me an omnitool for my birthday. I got locked out of the house, and hacked my way in. I started to get interested in tech attacks when I got jumped by a street gang. Three sabotages and a combat drone later, they were all dead. I was seventeen." Garrus grinned.

"Wow. You are quite the soldier, aren't you? If you had been Turian, I would have asked your father for his blessing by now." Maria turned to him.

"Well," she said softly, stepping closer to him, "I'm sure I could be Turian enough for you..." and with that, she leaned in for a kiss. Garrus hesitated for a moment, but then leaned in too. Before her lips could meet his mouth plates, though, they were interrupted by a blast of profuse swearing from the comm, and an angry Michael yelling, "C-sec have deployed FENRIS mechs! Get the Krogan, and bloody run!" Garrus looked at Maria for a second.

"This is not over," said Maria forcefully, and they started moving again.

They soon found the Krogan, easily identifiable by his massive scars and the various inventive curses that came from him as a LOKI mech shot him repeatedly in the back while a Turian biotic held him helpless. Maria and Garrus hacked the LOKI mech with ease, and it used a stun baton to knock the Turian out. The Krogan fell out of the bubble, but landed neatly on the balls of his feet with a grace that Krogan usually lacked. "Thanks," he said, "now what do you want?"

"You have a contract to protect someone. She's in danger."

"Dammit. If she dies, the Shadow Broker's gonna do what he said he was gonna do."

"What did he say he was going to do?"

"Do things with a scalpel that'd make the Genophage seem like a quick kick in the nuts." Garrus winced.

"Ouch."

"Yep. So, where's Tali?"

"Tali?"

"The Quarian. She's been halfway round the damn galaxy on some pilgrimage thing, and she found out some next-level shit to drop on a SpecTre called Saren. She told the Shadow Broker, who hired me to protect that little lady. Fine bloody job I did on that, too. Urdnot Wrex, best bounty hunter in the galaxy, laid out by a bunch of cops. Anyway, if she dies, Broker's gonna feed me my own...duck!" Maria cocked her head.

"Your own duck? I quite like duck, myself." Wrex pointed down the corridor at the YMIR mech advancing slowly up the corridor.

"No, duck." Maria and Garrus both threw overloads, and Garrus threw his Shotgun to Wrex. Wrex caught it, and grinned a grin that would have made the average Alliance Marine wet their combat armour.

"Hell yeah." Thirty seconds of unspeakable carnage later, they ran out of the building. Zero fatalities, one Krogan out of jail, all good.

 _I'm sorry about keeping you all waiting for this one. LOTS of homework._


	8. Chapter 8

The group were back at the table, where Wrex was telling them his story. "I had a run-in with the Shadow Broker's men a while back, and they laid me out. I was taken to an agent, one of the Shadow Broker's men, and he told me about a job. Simple protection duty. Then he gave me a choice. Take the job, or be slowly killed and served in a French restaurant." Garrus winced. Maria elbowed him sharply.

"Shut up, Garrus, we kinda need to hear this crap." Wrex sighed, then continued.

"Anyway, Fist said that the Shadow Broker had arranged a meeting, and that Tali had to be there. I don't know where, but I doubt that the Broker would come out of hiding, even for this. I say we hit Chora's Den, and find out where Fist sent her." The whole group looked to John.

"Shit," he said under his breath, "why do I have to be in charge?" He then turned to the others, and started handing out orders, fire patterns, tactical info, suggested loadouts. Only much later on would he look to himself, start making sure he himself would survive the coming fight. That was how he did things. Always last in line to the food table, always hungry. Always the one to hold the enemy back while others ran. The selfless soldier. The one who would die a thousand times to save one other life. John Shepard. He cleared his head, and returned to his tasks. He had to stay focused. Perfectly. Completely. Focused. Like Erica would have wanted.

James strode gracefully through the club. The plan was simple enough. There were a lot of turrets in Fist's office, easily enough to bring down the whole squad. His job was to get into the security office, disable the turrets, and get out. Easy. He strode up to the guard outside the security room, and flickered his eyes over the man. As he watched, a little mental grid came into focus. It was another 'symptom' of his 'condition'. He could look at anyone, and know almost their whole life story. Kind of like that old TV character, Sherlock. The man looked up from his omnitool. "Yeh? What'cha wantin'? Yer can't go in there. Thas orf limits, tha' is." James stepped slightly closer.

"Your wife is sleeping with the baker who comes round to your house near the clinic in the Wards every Wednesday. If you leave now, and catch the eleven thirty-one transport shuttle, you will catch them at it. Go." The man turned puce, and hurried off. James smiled. How easy. Quickly and efficiently hacking the door, he walked through. The walls held several screens, and there was a cola machine in the corner. He easily picked out the right screen. And shut down all the turrets. "Ok," he whispered into his COMM, "twenty turrets and one illicit romance shut down." Ruby's voice came back.

"I hope you're joking."

"I am incapable of humour, remember?"

Wrex went in first to draw fire. As the thugs hopelessly blasted away at him, John and Ashley vaulted neatly over the makeshift barricade that had been made at the door, and began reducing a cluster of thugs to tattered ribbons with their Thunder V assault rifles. It was their job to take out the main guards, while Kaidan, Jane, Michael and Ruby went after Fist, and James, Garrus and Maria got set up on a rooftop and waited for reinforcements. James had taken up position on a rooftop overlooking the back entrance to the club, while Garrus and Maria took up position covering the main door. Given that they were mainly up there as a precaution, the pair had plenty of time to talk. A few minutes of awkward silence passed. "Sooo," said Garrus, faking nonchalance, "what do you think of the new Equalizer? I like it." Maria shrugged.

"Meh. Give me a good Naginata any day."

"Have you seen John and Ashley? Those two are practically ripping each other's clothes off every time they're in the same room together."

"Not as bad as Jane and Kaidan. Jeez, when she's around him, she becomes a disgrace to feminism everywhere."

"Yep."

"You know what? There aren't going to be any reinforcements coming, and if there are, James will just brutally murder them all. Also, I am not letting Jane get a boyfriend before I do." And with that, she took his face in her hands, and kissed him. His eyes widened. And he kissed her back.

John readied his shotgun, running forward and killing the bartender in one shot. Behind him, Ashley covered his advance. Kaidan and Jane ran past, letting off a few shots, but nothing that could get them bogged down in melee. Ruby came soon after them. Michael quickly charged past them all, running at a group of snipers. Wrex was taking masses of enemy fire, his biotic barrier holding most of it back. He was taking a lot of hits, though, and sooner or later he would go down. Ashley stepped forward, activating Carnage and reducing one thug to atoms. As another tried to sneak up on her, John drew his pistol and shot the man dead. Ashley returned the favour by throwing a grenade into a small group of enemies who were hammering away at his shields. And so it went on, John and Ashley laying down perfect support for each other. It was like him and Erica had been, back before that day. Wrex was somewhere else, just tanking. He had left the building now, and the only sign that he still wasn't dead was an occasional sound of gunfire, screams, biotics, or all three at once. Meanwhile, John and Ashley were dancing around each other, their weapons spitting death. They barely noticed the enemy, instead each finding a strange peace in the fight, a strange joy in the connection they were sharing through perfect harmony with each other. They were a flawless blade, a perfect weapon, each of them perfectly matched in their weapons and skills. John was feeling the same, familiar rush of adrenaline that he always felt in combat. They were the perfect complement to each other, their skills fitting together in a strange meeting of souls. Then it was over. All the thugs were dead. From Fist's office came the sound of a man trying to talk his way out of a problem. "I swear, I have money! I can bargain!" Jane's voice came in response.

"I don't care. All we want is the location of the Quarian." She was doing the bad cop routine. A sound of a fist striking Fist confirmed this.

"Ok, ok! I told her to go to the alleyway behind the club. She's expecting to meet the Shadow Broker, but it'll be Saren's men waiting. She's gonna die, and the evidence along with her." John heard Jane talking into a COMM, calling James, Garrus and Maria up.

"The Quarian is in the alleyway behind the club, multiple hostiles present. Prepare for hostage-rescue situation."

Tali'Zorah Nar Rayya was nervous. That was reasonable enough, and completely normal. What was strange was that there was no sign of any agent, or anyone else who looked like they could be working for the Shadow Broker. There were, however, a worrying number of rough-looking men and women cradling assault rifles entering the alleyway. Three more entered. Then, the group moved towards her. She took a step back. They moved closer. Then, there was a sound of a gunshot. The whole alley stopped and looked at the source. There were three people standing at the top of the steps. Two were Alliance Marines, N7s by the look of them. One was male, a tall, wiry man with red hair that hung down over his forehead. The other was female, with light brown skin, brown eyes, and brown hair that hung down to her shoulders. The third person was a Turian, with Cobalt blue colony markings, pale blue-grey plating, and a truly impressive Haliat 4 slung across his back. The redhead spoke first. "Ok, everyone freeze!" Everyone was frozen. "Good. Now, the Quarian is coming with us, and the rest of you are going to disappear in three, two, one..." a round hit his shields, flaring blue before disappearing. He grunted with the impact, and then drew a pair of pistols and started blasting. Tali ran, and ducked into cover behind some crates. She then drew her pistol and blasted a Batarian Soldier who was advancing on the three people at the other end of the alleyway. The Turian threw a grenade, reducing a small group of enemies to ash. The woman let off a volley of biotic power, sending a group of assassins into a wall. The man ducked under a pistol shot, started running towards her, and tackled her behind some crates. A sniper round smashed through the wall where she had been standing two seconds previous. They hit the ground hard, or at least she did. The man put out his hands, turning his fall into a handspring that carried him over to a low wall, which he vaulted over to kick a Human mercenary, who had taken cover behind it, in the face. Then, there was a mighty bellow. A Krogan strode proudly into the battle. Tali jumped away as he fired a shot at where she had been standing. As the Krogan's shotgun cooled down, the red haired man moved in. She watched, her mouth hanging open behind her mask as he took the Krogan on. The Krogan raised his shotgun. "What's your name?" He asked abruptly. "I like to know the names of my prey." The Marine's voice was hypnotically level.

"James Shepard, Alliance Navy."

"Weyrloc Daxx."

"Nice to meet you, Daxx." And with that, James attacked. Daxx tried to bring up his shotgun for a close range blast, but James grabbed the barrel and forced it down. He then, retaining his grip on the gun, delivered a volley of high kicks to Daxx's face. He then yanked the gun away, and threw it to the Turian. Unarmed combat against a Krogan. He could not possibly win. It was impossible. First, he spun low, slamming both feet into Daxx's shins. Then, he slid between Daxx's legs, springing up on the other side for a jumping roundhouse kick to the small of Daxx's back. And another one to the back of the head. And two more, one in the back of each knee. And one last mighty kick in the arse. Daxx, the eight foot three Krogan warrior, collapsed in a bloody, pulped mess. James stepped calmly over the body, taking Daxx's shotgun from the Turian and pointing it at him. His voice rang out, clear and imperious. "Go home to Tuchanka. Forget you were ever Daxx. Start fresh. Get out of my sight, before I try out this gun on you." Daxx crawled away as fast as his mangled limbs could carry him. Tali gasped.

"How did you..."

"Take down a Krogan completely unarmed. Not sure." He grinned nervously. "It just sort of happened." The woman called down to them. "James, you're out of luck! Quarians have a bad history with synthetics!"

"Oh my God, Maria, enough with the freaking android jokes already!" Yelled James angrily.

Maria stopped. Her mouth swung open. James Adam Shepard, the one who could never and would never feel emotion, had just got angry. Holy shit. Holy shit. "Holy shit!" Then, shortly afterwards, "wait, was that out loud?" Garrus turned to her.

"Yes, it was." Meanwhile, James and Tali were talking.

"Thank you. If you three hadn't come, then…" she shivered slightly.

"It's okay. We would have gladly helped anyway, but we have been told that you have some Intel about a Turian named Saren Arterius."

"Yes. Yes, I do. My friend and I were on our pilgrimages, and we ran across each other. We heard about a planet where Geth had attacked, and went to see if we could help. We waited for twelve days, until a Geth became cut off from its unit. We brought it down, and stole the memory core. I made it off planet with the data, but…my friend…she…" Her posture slumped as the memories returned. James put his hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry to hear that. But we need that intel to stop Saren and the Geth from attacking anyone else." She nodded.

"Yes…that is the right thing to do. And maybe I can repay you for saving my life."


End file.
